You know what’s really neat about this though, even though they are both adding the word “just” before their names, Jack and Oz are using that word in two completely different ways.
There’s Jack who is using it to degrade himself. He thinks of himself as nothing special. He isn’t a noble, his mother didn’t even see him for who he was, and now he was just some bum curled up in a cold and dark alleyway. So he was “just Jack.” No last name, no attachment; just this kid named Jack who could be lost and forgotten and no one would care.
But, then you have Oz, and Oz is using “just Oz” in the exact opposite manner as Jack is. Here he is saying that, yeah, he might be a noble, yeah, he might be this special “key” that everyone is looking for, and, yeah, he might be the contractor of the deadliest and most blood thirsty Chain called B-Rabbit while also having the savior of the Tragedy of Sablier inside of his body…
Yet, he is also just a kid who wants to be accepted by his father, protect and love his friends, and simply have a good time. He might be Oz Vessalius, but in his mind he is “just Oz,” and that means he’ll be friends with anyone, no matter their social standing or past history. None of that matters. If you are a good person, then he wants to be your friend, because his last name and his nobility doesn’t make up who he is. Oz makes up who he is, and therefore, he is “just Oz.”
